[countrygrrrl]

I just went a looked at my heirloom tomatoes and noticed, right in the middle of two or three perfectly formed leaves is a complete lack of pigmentation.



The plant itself is healthy and growing gangbusters -- like a foot in the last day! -- and the leaves are just lovely and nicely formed -- but completely white in the middle.

Could this e because they're heirlooms? Or am i dealing with a deficiency? Or ... ?

 

[GRHE]

Are there any signs of aphids? When they of other sucking insects pull out the fluids they may drain the area enough to get all the chlorophyll as well.

Most likely you just have a few leaves missing some pigmentation though. If there is no sign of yellowing or brown, and it is only affecting a handful of leaves it us likely that in its current growth spurt it is simply outgrowing a few of the leaves a bit. A few leaves will also periodically die back, especially if they take a little sunburn or get shaded too much by new growth.

Keep an eye on them, and if you do see aphids on the suspect leaves just hit it with a quick spray of water. Minor aphid outbreaks can easily be washed away, but heirlooms should be watched a bit closer for major outbreaks as most of them have no immunities to the nasties that the aphids have a habit of bringing with them.

 

[countrygrrrl]

*lightbulb* Hmmm! Interesting, because ....

... this particular tomato patch (I have a couple of them) is located about 4-5' from a forsythia I've been having problems with. I treated the forsythia for aphids several weeks ago, then for scale a couple of days ago.

! I've seen no sign of aphids on these tomatoes, but I'm not a big believer in coincidence. Meaning I suspect I might have them there but just haven't located them yet. Thanks!

 

[OD]

Do they look like this?
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/tomatoproblemsolver/leaves/18c.html

 

[countrygrrrl]

No. These are lovely, perfectly formed little leaves which are missing pigment --- I said earlier the pigment was missing in the middle, but I actually meant the pigment was missing on the bottom of the leaf by where it attaches to the stem.

Other than being white in that area, they're perfect. It's maybe two-three little leaves that are like this.